Friday, February 23, 2007

And not just on the air...OMW has received an official press release from Good Karma sports talk WKNR/850 on the first announcement in a series of two, about upcoming changes at the station.

850's branding changes on Monday, as WKNR becomes "ESPN 850 WKNR". And for good reason, for the station's schedule changes include the return Monday of ESPN Radio morning team "Mike and Mike", featuring Cleveland native Mike Golic and co-host Mike Greenberg.

The WKNR press release quotes Golic:

“I am very happy with this. Growing up on the Eastside of Cleveland and Willowick, my alma-mater, St.Joe’s…I am very happy we are back on where we belong, and certainly look forward to it.”

The ESPN morning show ran on WKNR until last fall, when then-owner Salem was forced to move to FOX Sports Radio by...current WKNR owner Good Karma, which swiped the ESPN Radio affiliation for what was then its only Cleveland outlet, WWGK/1540.

"Mike and Mike" will air weekdays from 6 AM to 10 AM, which includes the show's third hour that was not carried in the past on WKNR.

OMW hears that WKNR sister WWGK, which has been known as "Cleveland's ESPN Radio 1540", will become "Cleveland's AM 1540, KNR-2".

And regular OMW reader/tipster Nathan Obral tells us that another WKNR speciality show moves over to 1540 - as Antonio Castro's "The Boxing Show" will follow former WKNR staple "The High School Football Show with Jim Isabella" on 1540's Saturday lineup.

Other announcements will be made at 4 PM this afternoon on WKNR's Kenny Roda afternoon drive show. We believe more lineup changes are in the works at the new "ESPN 850", including the announcement of at least one new regular weekday host.

But...we hear that Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin is not only putting himself on Roda's show to make those announcements.

The station owner will also be the latest host of the station's "Cleveland Sports Saturday", tomorrow morning from 9 AM to noon at a local car dealership. Karmazin, of course, is the regular co-host of Good Karma evening syndicated show "Steve and Craig", which we presume will still air starting next month on what's becoming "AM 1540, KNR-2".

You can't say the guy is hiding from public input.

And in fact, from that same press release, a quote from the station's boss:

“We’re excited to have Mike & Mike back... this is all based on everything I have heard from the people in the area. So, I am going to be excited to find out if - once all the moves are said and done - I am going to get some thumbs up or some thumbs down on the changes.”

It could be one of the more interesting Saturday morning radio remotes...

Bleh I actually liked the change to FSR over ESPN the last few months. This is 7pm to early am timeslots I'm talking about. It has some rough spots but was far better, actual sportstalk instead of constant updates or promoing what else is on/available with ESPN content. And as the past few days showed what ESPN doesn't want to cover based on their contracts they will bury, the alleged Pacman Jones incident in Vegas with the NBA All-Star game. Guess if the NFL says jump ESPN says how high anymore.

ESPN radio is terrible. How is that considered an improvement? Mike and Mike in the morning with their 4 hours of incoherent rambling. They would not know how to take a listener phone call if you showed them how. I guess I m going to listen to Steve Czaban on XM now. Too bad WKNR you blew it again.

Would you all quit whining over the percieved lack of "improvement" at this radio station? For once, a new owner comes into this market and doesn't whack every warm body in the building...we should be thrilled, to some degree, that there isn't a bloodletting in this era of corporate radio consolidation and the inevitable human fallout.

Liking FSR over ESPN Radio is a matter of personal taste, as is which hosts you'd like (or not) on the air. I'm not able to listen to Mike and Mike or Czaban, but I know Dan Patrick certainly played the Pacman Jones story to the hilt. So ESPN doesn't bow to the NFL, unless it's a questionable dramatic series...

No folks, I don't work for WKNR. But as a sports fan (and a radio pro) in this town, I'll give them a chance.

Craig said on his show this morning that cancelling JT the Brick was a hard decision. Compared to Bob Valvano JT the Brick is excellent. Valvano is pre recorded interviews for 3-4 hours and scores every 10 mins. I don't understand the love affair that this guy has with Mike/Mike saying they are the highest radio show nationally and locally. If they were so good why were they always at the bottom of the ratings? The show is terrible too bad nobody had the guts to tell Craig that this morning.

I actually liked FSR's First Team in the morning... Mike and Mike is incredibly boring. I just don't get their appeal... Well, at least now I don't even have to worry about checking WKNR in the mornings.

Well lets see after midnight the station changed to ESPN Radio and guess what we got right out of the gate after the Sportscenter update? More scores after we just heard them two mins before. Then 5 mins later we went around the league with scores again. Then the overnight host must have replayed his interview with John Clayton about 10 times the whole night. ESPN Radio is so incredibly bad. At least FSR took calls from the listeners and talked a variety of sports topics and didnt repeat scores ad nauseaum every 2 minutes. WKNR Enjoy your Mike/Mike I m switching to XM 142 where I can hear real sports talk and not ESPN News on the radio.